Our Culture celebrates the idea of the workaholic. We hear about people burning the midnight oil all the time. They pull all-nighters and sleep at the office. It's considered a badge of honor to kill yourself over a project. No amount of work is too much work.

Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it's dumb. Working more doesn't mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more.

Workaholics wind up creating more problems than they solve. First off, working ridiculous hours just isn't sustainable over time. When the burnout crash comes--and it will---it will hit much harder.

Workaholics miss the point, too. Trying to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. Trying to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This results in inelegant solutions.

They don't look for ways to be more efficient because they actually like working overtime. They enjoy feeling like heroes and getting all the attention that "badge of honor" brings. But they actually end up creating more problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more.

All too often Workaholics make the people who don't stay late feel inadequate for "merely" working reasonable hours. That leads to guilt and poor morale all around. Plus, it leads to an butt-in-seat mentality---people stay late out of obligation, even if they aren't really being productive.

If all you do is work, you're unlikely to have sound judgments. Your values and decision making wind up skewed. You stop being able to decide what's worth extra effort and what's not. And you wind up just plain tired. No one makes sharp decisions when they're tired.

In the end, Workaholics don't actually accomplish more than non-workaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that just means they're wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task.

Workaholics aren't heroes. They don't save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a better way to get things done.

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Anonymous commented on 14-Sep-2012 01:48 PM

Thankfully, I am on staff with a senior patosr who allows for guilt-free time away. We are committed to working very hard, and then resting. We have a full day office hours Mon-Thurs and then 4 weekend services, 1 Sat and 3 Sunday. =========================================In
my application, here's the breakdown of time off at our church:*** Off every Friday.*** Optional 8th weekend off. (See details below).*** A 2 day Mini-vacation (2 working days off can be combined with regular off day + 8th weekend if scheduled correctly, which
is very nice.)*** 2 Separate Weeks of vacation. (3 after 3rd year on staff)Let me explain the 8th Weekend Rule because I think this is SO beneficial. When we launched our fourth weekend service our lead patosr instated this new rule . Basically, it grants
each staff member the option to be gone every 8th weekend, meaning he/she is not even required to attend a service. This also means that he/she cannot miss any services between those 8 weeks. For example, if I want to go on weekend get-away, do outside ministry,
attend a friend's wedding, or just sit home, that's completely up to me. I simply cannot miss more than 1 weekend within any 8 week period. This short time off is proving to be a great refresher. If this is not clearly explain, let me know.=========================================Again,
I am so grateful for a lead patosr who encourages his staff to schedule time away. Here's how I make use of this GUILT-FREE time off.My day off: I have a scheduled day off. Meaning that day is NOT available for appointments, counseling, answering email, phone
calls, etc. Why? Because it is already scheduled . For the most part, I'm unavailable on Fridays. I will only take my lead patosr's calls, which he calls only in case of emergency and is very rare.8th Weekends, Mini-Vacation, & Vacations: Even though we are
young in the ministry, my wife and I have learned some valuable lessons about protecting our time away. Here's what we've learned so far.1) TIME AWAY IS A MUST gotta have it.2) STAYING LOCAL IS NOT AN OPTION: We must get away leave town, disappear. If not,
amazingly people still find us OR we end up doing the norm, which includes work, and it doesn't feel like a time of refreshing.3) DISCONNECT FROM PHONE & EMAIL. We do NOT open our email or answer work related calls. Caller ID is from God =). Our cellphones
have a We're away and will be available again on greetings on them. In fact, I keep my iPhone off as much as possible just because it can be so intrusive.4) SCHEDULE IN ADVANCE. At the beginning of each year, usually in January, we sit down with our calendar
and map out our time off. Why? Because we've found that if we don't we'll get so busy with life and ministry that we just never get around to it. And because its just that important.

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